Cleaning up fine dirt or silt

[waldreps]

I just opened my pool last night. Yeah, I waited this long because without a pool heater and living in Minnesota, the water is always still too cold until well into July. The water wasn't too bad. I added a bunch of bleach and in 24 hours I can see the main drain already. Anyway, I have a lot of fine dirt or silt that made its way through my mesh cover over the winter. Would it be best to brush it toward the main drain and let the sand filter take care of it, vacuum it to waste, or drop my Dolphin in there to attack it?

Thanks,
Stacy

[aylad]

that depends on how efficient your Dolphin is..my Polaris doesn't do too well with very fine silt, so in my pool, I'd just vac it to waste. You can try brushing it toward the drain to see if the filter will catch it--but if it's too small for the sand filter, you'll have to wait a couple of days for it to settle back out.

[waldreps]

I tried brushing it toward the drain but a lot of it just settled back down to the bottom. Time to break out the Dolphin to see if that will tackle it. The regular bag that came with it is supposed to filter down pretty small so I hope it will hold it. Vacuuming with my system works less than ideal so that's my last resort.

Thanks,
Stacy

[aylad]

Try adding a handful of cotton balls to the bag if the Dolphin doesn't get it all up--sometimes that will make them filter smaller stuff. Works on my Polaris pretty well, but not for pollen...

Janet

[waldreps]

OK, thanks for the tip. I'm gonna drop it in tonight and let it run overnight. I'll see tomorrow how it did.

[waldreps]

Well, the Dolphin picked up a bunch of gunk but as is usual with it, it didn't cover everywhere. I have an idea what may be complicating the cleanup. It appears I need a new multiport gasket. I backwashed a bit ago and the valve made a weird noise and some water was still coming out of the return. I had a little fountain sprayer on the return is how I noticed it. I took the top off the valve and noticed that the gasket isn't totally seated in several spots and is twisted over a little. I'm thinking that some of the water from the pump is going past the filter and back into the pool instead of all of it going to the filter when it's operating normally. So, this would cause the some of the dirt that's sucked up to be blown back out into the pool and settle on the bottom. At least that's my thinking at the moment. Does that sound plausible?

Thanks,
Stacy

[airraid1999]

i used coffee filters?

[CarlD]

If it's a Dolphin robotic cleaner like a Dolphin Dynamic, the bag is going to be far better than a Polaris bag. I had a Dolphin, now have a Blue Diamond, and their bags filter as well as a DE filter. In fact, a cleaning with one of them (or the equivalent AquaBot and Red Devil brands) is equal to a DE filter running for the same period. For them, the high end robotics, the cotton ball trick probably isn't going to work. I used it on my old Polaris and it DID help.

Carl

[waldreps]

The Dolphin is supposed to filter down pretty small, and it did pick up a lot of stuff. What's happening now is that I've run the Dolphin twice but still have sand/silt/dirt all over the floor of my pool. It seems to pick up stuff but then things either settle back to the bottom or is being blown back in through the return. I figured out today that my spider gasket needs replacing, and I have one ordered. I'm starting to think that what I'm seeing on the bottom is sand, possibly from the filter. I have a PF-50 filter and just did a sand replacement last year. I took the whole thing apart and checked/cleaned/replaced laterals and visually checked everything inside. It all looked good besides the two cracked laterals that I replaced. I added 200# of sand that I got from the pool store. It worked good for the rest of the season last year. Will the spider gasket have anything to do with sand on the floor? I'm assuming that since I just checked and replaced laterals last year that they should be fine. What else would cause the sand from my filter to end up in my pool?

[aylad]

Yes, the gasket being bad can, and will, allow sand to blow back into the pool, especially on startup. Replacing the gasket is not hard, and it may very well fix your problem.

[waldreps]

Thanks, Janet. I sucked up some with a turkey baster and put it in a glass. After settling overnight, it seems to be sand. I was thinking about this sand thing. When I took the cover off before the pump had even been run, all of this stuff was there. Maybe the gasket is letting some blow in but maybe most of it was already there. Last year when I replaced the sand in the filter, I dumped the old sand in a pile at the edge of some trees which is only about 30 feet from the pool. Maybe a lot of this sand was blown in from that pile over the winter and spring before I opened the pool. I'm going to wait for my gasket to get here and then see how it goes. Hopefully I don't have to tear into the filter again.

[waldreps]

I just noticed tonight while I was backwashing that water was going back into the pool through the return. So, the bad spider gasket must be causing all the stuff to get blown back into the pool while I'm backwashing. I'm guessing that's my problem. The new gasket won't be here until next week sometime. Maybe I'll just plug the return when I'm backwashing for now.

[aylad]

Both of the major pool stores around here (one is a chain, the other is a Mom n' Pop) carry the gaskets in stock, which is a good thing because there are 4 or 5 different sizes. Where did you order yours from?

Janet

[waldreps]

I ordered it from ebay. I only have one pool store near me, a local store, and most of the times their prices are pretty high. Here's the link I ordered it from:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/140479470908?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649#ht_1218wt_905

[waldreps]

I just wanted to check back and post my results. I got my gasket, replaced it, vacuumed the sand/silt to waste, and everything's working great. After replacing all the gaskets in the multivalve an putting magic lube everywhere, the handle moves so smooth and feels brand new. The old gasket just came right out. When I bought the house back in 2004, I had the pool company come out, open the pool, and show me how everything works. They replaced the gasket then but I don't think they even used any adhesive. It just came right out. So, my pool is clear and no more sand/silt is coming back in during backwashing or any other time. Thanks for all the comments and help.

[aylad]

Great!! I'm glad it worked out for you. Now go enjoy the pool! :cool:

Janet